Baldwin v. Trailers Inns
| Decision Date | 20 September 2001 |
| Docket Number | DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES,No. 00-35412,PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS,00-35412 |
| Citation | 266 F.3d 1104 |
| Parties | (9th Cir. 2001) MICHAEL A. BALDWIN; CONSTANCE J. BALDWIN, HUSBAND AND WIFE, AND THE MARITAL COMMUNITY COMPOSED THEREOF,, v. TRAILER INNS, INC., A CORPORATION REGISTERED IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON; DON KRAMER, |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Paul H. King, Seattle, Washington, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Gary E. Lofland, Lofland and Associates, Yakima, Washington, for the defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington John C. Coughenour, Chief District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-98-01789-JCC
Before: Harry Pregerson, Sidney R. Thomas, and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges.
Appellants, husband and wife Michael A. Baldwin and Constance J. Baldwin (the "Baldwins"), were managers of Appellee Trailer Inns, Inc.'s recreational vehicle ("RV") park in Bellevue, Washington. The Baldwins seek overtime wages from Trailer Inns, Inc. and its president, Don Kramer (collectively, "Trailer Inns") under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and damages resulting from the alleged breach of their employment agreement with Trailer Inns, Inc. The Baldwins appeal the district court's grant of two motions for partial summary judgment in favor of Trailer Inns. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291. We affirm in part on the FLSA claim and reverse in part on the breach of contract claim.
Trailer Inns, Inc. is a Washington corporation, head-quartered in Yakima, that owns and operates RV parks in Bellevue, Spokane, and Yakima, Washington. The Bellevue park (the "park") has space for up to 104 RV's. The facilities for guests include an office, pool, showers, restrooms, recreation room, barbeque, and a picnic area.
Trailer Inns, Inc. typically hires a husband and wife to manage the park. The managers are required to live in an apartment located in the park, which is provided as part of the managers' compensation. The managers are helped by assistant managers, also a couple, who reside in the park in a RV.
Pursuant to an assistant manager's contract, the Baldwins began working as assistant managers at the park on July 30, 1997. The contract included an addendum requiring that the Baldwins participate in a one-month assistant manager on-site training program at a joint salary of $1,500 "to learn owner's proven techniques and standards and methods of management with regard to Owner recreational vehicle facility. " The training addendum also includes a job description: "Manages and maintains recreational park; shows, rents or assigns space(s), registers guests, collects rent and records data pertaining to rent funds and expenditures . . . ." The addendum concludes by outlining cleaning, maintenance, and repair responsibilities. Upon completion of the training, the contract called for the Baldwins to earn a joint salary of $1,900 per month.
The Baldwins completed the one-month training as assistant managers on August 26, 1997, and began work as assistant managers.
On September 9, 1997, the Baldwins entered into another employment agreement (the "agreement") with Trailer Inns, Inc., giving the Baldwins, as the park's "Management Team," "general management authority with respect" to the park. The agreement states that previous agreements between the contracting parties "are mutually rescinded, canceled, and annulled." The agreement calls for the Management Team to ensure that all park employees appear "neat and clean" and "maintain a professional demeanor"; makes the Management Team responsible for the general day-to-day maintenance of the park's facilities, maintaining supply and spare parts inventories, and promoting the business of the owner; and requires the Management Team to oversee the work of assistant managers, deal with the customers, handle the park's paperwork and accounting, and perform manual labor related to the cleaning, maintenance, and repair of the park. The agreement also requires the managers to be on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and requires a manager to be on-site unless an assistant manager is on duty. The agreement sets the Baldwins' joint salary at $2,400 per month in addition to on-site apartment housing.
An addendum to the agreement requires the Management Team to enroll in a one-month training period at a joint salary of $1,900 a month. The first three paragraphs of the addendum are essentially identical to the provisions in the training addendum to the assistant manager's contract, except for the differences in salary and benefits. Additional supervisory responsibilities are outlined in the Management Team's job description, including The addendum includes an additional bolded paragraph that provides:
The Manager's (women's) primary duties are to handle the office, customer service and to keep the building clean and maintained. The Manager's (Man's) primary duties is [sic] to keep the building and outside grounds clean and well maintained and to help in the office and customer service.
The agreement also calls for a "Revised Bonus & Profit Share Program," provided that the Management Team"remain as Managers for at least one (1) year after completing the one-month training program." Receipt of bonus compensation is also conditioned on the Management Team meeting the performance standards set out in the attached"Manager's Checklist."
Constance Baldwin states that before signing the agreement on September 9, 1997, she had a conversation with Kramer, the owner, that led her to believe that the Baldwins' one-month training requirement as managers was satisfied by the one-month training as assistant managers that the Baldwins had completed about two weeks earlier. The Baldwins were paid $1,900 for their work in September, 1997. The previous Management Team, Del and Lisa Moser, continued working at the park until the beginning of October, 1997. In October, 1997, the Baldwins began earning $2,400 jointly a month.
The agreement calls for a monthly inspection of the park conducted by Trailer Inns, Inc.'s owner or an owner's representative. During the Baldwins' tenure as park managers, Kramer visited the park only once or twice per month. The agreement also provides that the inspector use the Manager's Checklist to evaluate the Management Team's performance in managing and maintaining the park and grants the owner power to deduct pay for deficient job performance.
Trailer Inns, Inc. also used daily, weekly, and monthly checklists to ensure the completion of tasks. Kramer states that
In the year of the Baldwins' employment under the manager's agreement, three sets of assistant managers worked at the park (1) Lance Mayo and Cindy Shiery from October 1, 1997 to January 8, 1998; (2) Jock and Shirley McGreggor from January 31, 1998 to May 12, 1998; and (3) Martin Hoage and Margarete DeLozier from May 12, 1998, through the end of the Baldwins' employment. Like the Baldwins' contract, the assistant manager's contract of Mayo and Shiery called for a $1,900 salary. Hoage and DeLozier's contract called for $1,700 salary with job performance incentives allowing for a maximum monthly bonus of $200.
Kramer states that the Baldwins conducted initial interviews of the assistant manager candidates, and Kramer would conduct the subsequent interviews. Kramer also states that the Baldwins were responsible for training, evaluating, and disciplining assistant managers. The Baldwins admit to training all three sets of assistant managers. The Baldwins completed a training checklist for Lance Mayo and Cindy Shiery and, at the conclusion of the training, completed written evaluations of them.1 The Baldwins also issued a written evaluation of the McGreggors' work upon their departure from the park, which was not related to their performance.
Kramer states that the Baldwins recommended termination of the first set of assistant managers. The Baldwins wrote a termination letter to Lance Mayo and Cindy Shiery on January 8, 1998. The Baldwins state that when Kramer"made a personnel decision, he then directed us on what exactly to do, he dictated the letter by which he ended their employment, all we did was follow his directions precisely." Kramer asserts that the Baldwins hired additional part-time workers for care and maintenance of the park. The record indicates that on at least two occasions, the Baldwins hired additional part-time workers.
The park's winter 1997-98 schedule indicates that the managers were scheduled to work forty-two hours per week. Managers were not scheduled to work Sundays and Mondays, and assistant managers were not scheduled to work Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, each manager was scheduled to spend between two and four-and-one-half hours per week working the same shifts as an assistant manager. The summer schedule indicates a forty-three hour workweek for managers, and during the three days when both managers and assistant managers were both scheduled to work, there was no scheduled overlap between the shifts of managers and assistant managers.
The Baldwins state that as managers: (1) they spent more than forty hours per week to complete their tasks; and (2) the managers and assistant managers performed essentially the same tasks, primarily manual labor. The Baldwins also state that their administrative and...
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